


Aphrodite Epistrophia

by whilelmpreposterous (kalachelone)



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Found Poetry, Gen, Goddess of Love - Freeform, sounds pretty esoteric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 13:05:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15707814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalachelone/pseuds/whilelmpreposterous
Summary: What does an epithet tell us of a god?





	Aphrodite Epistrophia

**Author's Note:**

> This is a found poem. I found its phrases among the examples given in Liddell & Scott, the preeminent dictionary of Ancient Greek, for the family of words that begin with epistroph-, the root for Epistrophia, one of Aphrodite's epithets.

turn towards  
turn your eyes or mind  
to a thing,  
regard

turn round, turn about,  
constantly turning, as if to look behind  
turned to gaze on something  
a lion retreating

curve, twist, distort  
of hair, curl  
of a tree, crooked  
of fir-needles, bent

turn about, turn round  
put an enemy to flight  
wheel about  
of a wild boar, turn  
upon the hunter

go back and forwards  
wandering over the earth,  
observing, studying  
turn to the place  
of the sun, revolve

wheeling about  
tossing, of a restlessness  
renewed assaults of ills unnumbered  
wheeling through a right angle  
of ships, putting about, tacking  
have a relapse

turn from error, correct,  
exact, strict, severe,  
be converted, return,  
conduct oneself,  
behave, earnest,  
vehement  
bring into action

flexible, supple,  
modulated, varied  
of strands, twisting  
of a bow, bending  
of a river, winding  
of a bay, curve  
cause to return to the source  
of Being,

pay attention

that by which all the revolving  
spheres are turned  
thus turned about, changed  
returned to yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Pausanias* tells us that Aphrodite Epistrophia had a sanctuary at Megara. In Pausanias’ passage about the goddess, epistrophia is translated as “she who turns men to love.” This is a translator’s best guess as to what the epithet means, but the family of words in which we find epistrophia has little to do with love and everything to do with turning. Aphrodite Epistrophia is “she who turns men’s minds,” and because the she who is doing the turning is the goddess of love, love has to be in the equation somewhere. We are, however, left with the question unanswered whether she is turning minds to love or with love.
> 
> [*Pausanias 1.40.6]


End file.
